Burger Club NY: 99 Problems But The Slider Ain't One

If you like pillows, you are going to love Jay-Z's 40-40 Club. Because there's nothing I like more than being at a club, it's late, I'm tired, and I am thinking of my favorite inanimate object. The pillow. Well, there's 300 of them—to the point, where waiters carry stacks of pillows to clear room for people to sit. According to the club's website: "40/40 is accented by over 300 pillows that were designed by owner Juan Perez's childhood friend's mother and handcrafted in her home in Washington Heights."

We arrive at the club to watch football (Giants versus the Cowboys), but even before the big game begins, all the drool-inducing TVs are on the same channel, watching the same game, even though with all the screens, we could enjoy multiple big games.

When our burger orders arrive, and Showed Us What You Got, we are surprised because:

1) the menu says "burgers"—not sliders—and we each had three sliders on our plates and

2) when we had asked the waitress, Excuse Me, Miss, what is in the Special 40-40 Sauce, the waitress had described it as a "spicy ketchup," but it is 1000 Island dressing.

The toppings are arranged on the side, tomato, onion, and three thick pickle wedges, cut at an angle and succulent. These sliders are messy, and the 1000 Island dressing "dribble down in VA [or in my napkin]." The bun-to-meat-ratio is perfect, a tricky ratio to negotiate with sliders, because the tendency is to bulk up the buns.

Even though The Game zinged, "his beef is mediocre beef," we'd say that Jay-Z's beef is h-to-the-Izzo delicious.

So Anna rates:

Bex:

My football buddy and I showed up at 40/40 club early to score a seat for the games but were immediately mistaken for Obama activists. Apparently they were using a large room in the club as a make-shift call center for Obama volunteers to call voters in South Philly a couple days before the election. They just assumed we were there to volunteer, I mean, why on earth would we be watching football with such an exciting election happening?! After accepting a bribe of two very cool glitter Obama pins that some 6 yrs old made, we decided to do our small part and help the guy (Obama) out. Did I mention Edie Falco was there doing the same thing?

So we got our list of names and phone numbers along with a script that went something along the lines of, "Hello, I'm calling to see if you are voting for Barak Obama and to make sure your lovely Sunday afternoon is interrupted by an unsolicited call." Ok, so that's what i was thinking every time a little old lady came to the phone out of breath because she thought it might be an emergency. Actually most of the people didn't even answer or they let their voice mail pick up, which I'm sure was a relief to all parties involved. In the end, I was glad I did it and felt like I went above and beyond the lazy mofos that just checked a box on election day.

And now for the burger! Or should I say, burgers... The little guys were actually quite good!

Bex rates: